The Park, Friday Afternoon

[uncertain_dume]

It was Friday, so of course Kanan was in the park. And this week he'd even bought extra bamboo swords, on the off chance somebody would show up hoping for a spar or wanting to follow along. They were all lined up neatly against the bench, where Stance was napping, curled up on a towel that Kanan had brought along in case of any more pond incidents.

As usual, the lightsaber was out, and Kanan was running through his forms. If he happened to be trying to incorporate a few of the more acrobatic moves into them this week, it was less because of boredom settling in from living on the island and more because he wasn't sure he was pushing himself enough, lately.

Honest.

[OOC: Open! Today is a Force Leap day in the park. Unless you're Seivarden. Kanan will stop showing off around Seivarden, honestly now.]

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[1000yearstoolate]

At least it had been Stance falling into the pond last week and not Issa. So Seivarden had brought the cat with her to the park again, and while she kept a distance from Kanan, Issa quickly ran towards her friend. Perhaps she could surprise him?

Seivarden took a seat on a bench and poured herself some tea.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan wasn't ignoring Seivarden, per se. He was just not looking at all in her direction, though he was well aware she was here. He'd planet his feet on firm ground the moment he'd sensed her coming, and had reeled back his acrobatics to anything a normal human might be able to manage without the Force.

Still impressive. But not remarkable. He liked to keep his secrets close to his chest around people he didn't trust.

Stance, meanwhile, suspected nothing. He stayed on his towel, chin on his paws, quietly watching his person train.

[1000yearstoolate]

What Seivarden didn't know didn't bother her.

Issa was sneaking up behind Stance to attempt an attack on his tail, because that was a nice way to say hello.

[uncertain_dume]

Well, then they would both be happier this way.

Stance was less happy, though. A sudden pounce to the tail from behind startled him terribly, and he was jumping up with a yelp and taking off at a run. He was not going to get taken down by ducks! No way!

[1000yearstoolate]

But Issa wasn't a duck! She was his friend!

She hadn't expected to scare Stance this badly, but if he was going to run, she was going to follow.

[uncertain_dume]

And now he was being chased? Chased! By what? Who knew! It was hard to run in a panic and look behind himself at the same time, after all.

... Kanan wasn't laughing at him. Honest.

[1000yearstoolate]

Wasn't he going to stop and say hi? Issa hadn't poked his nose yet.

She sat down and let out a wail, sounding as if she was dying.

[uncertain_dume]

And at that, Stance skidded to a stop, turning around and tilting his head her way.

Issa? Friend? When had she gotten here??

[1000yearstoolate]

Oh, good. Issa began to clean her back paw.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was back after a week out of town, and of course she stood off to the side for a moment to watch before asking, "Showing off?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Working out some of the rust," Kanan corrected, turning and crouching, and then launching himself forward a good fifteen feet before straightening up again and lowering his lightsaber. "This is one of those things I don't get to do back home."

He ducked his head slightly and chuckled.

"It's mostly not meant to be showing off, anyway."

Mostly? Kanan.

[thatwaslucky]

Yeah, she caught that 'mostly.'

"How do you even do that?" she wondered.

[uncertain_dume]

"That's the Force at work, there," Kanan explained, shutting off his blade. It's one of those things a Jedi can do that I haven't really spent much time thinking about, over the years. For some of us, it was just something we could do intuitively."

Kanan had to put a bit of focus into his, especially after locking himself off from the Force for so long, but he wasn't about to admit to that. He'd get it back in time, with work. He'd get a lot of it back in time, with work.

"It's not all mind tricks and flashy swords, you know."

[thatwaslucky]

"I didn't even know there were mind tricks," Rey admitted.

That stuff didn't tend to make it into the stories she'd hear back home.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan blinked.

"Huh," he said, tilting his head a little. "I've been accused of trying them on people even when I'm not. I guess stories change."

The loss of the entire Jedi Order would do that, he supposed.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey shrugged. "I doubt Jakku has ever seen a Jedi. The stories that get around are... flashier? Mostly war stories."

[uncertain_dume]

'Ever' was a long time, but Kanan wasn't going to argue semantics. If Rey didn't know much about Jedi, then Rey didn't know much about Jedi. That was the important part.

"The war stories are the ones that really stick, huh?" He nodded thoughtfully. "From the Clone Wars, I'd guess? We were hard to miss back then."

There had been a couple more of them, too.

[intotheout]

"Did you recruit a bunch of new students over break?" Tip asked. She played it off like it was a casual, teasing question, but really she was a little worried about the answer. She liked having her sword lessons be just her and Kanan.

But, you know, it wasn't like they'd ever talked about this being a one-on-one thing forever. . . .

[uncertain_dume]

"They're for sparring," Kanan replied, offering her a little grin. Yeah, he could sense that worry. He'd do his best to mitigate it right up front. "A friend of mine stopped by the park the other week and we realized that there was no way a bamboo sword would hold up against a lightsaber, so I had to get a few more. Hand-to-hand in the meantime was..."

Well. It had involved attack ducks and a man turning into smoke, so...

"We needed swords."

[intotheout]

Some days were like that.

"How many swords do you need to spar with?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Well, I've got the Force and Peter's some kind of superhuman shapeshifting vampire who can turn into fire," Kanan replied, shrugging. "My guess is, 'more than two.'"

[intotheout]

"Soooooo . . . force-throw him into the pond."

[uncertain_dume]

"... I would say that's cheating, but he did turn into fire."

[intotheout]

"If it's not going to, like, permanently maim someone, I say there's no such thing as 'cheating' in a fight."

[uncertain_dume]

"Fair enough," Kanan replied, looking thoughtful. "And he does want to be challenged..."

Hell, it could be fun to bust out a good Force push when Peter wasn't expecting it. At least once.